Simone's Six: Showtime Nikola Vucevic, Jaylen Brown's surge, and a new offensive weapon in Celtics-Nets

BOSTON — On Friday night, for the first time in nearly three weeks, there was Boston Celtics basketball at TD Garden. They welcomed the Brooklyn Nets to town, and based on the two teams’ first three encounters this year, everything pointed toward a physical slugfest.

But the Celtics had other plans.

Brooklyn kept things close through the first two quarters, but in the third, they just couldn’t keep up. The Celtics exploded for one of the best offensive performances in NBA history.

Celtics tonight ... among the NBA records set in 148-111 win over the Nets -- Highest EFG Pct (.808) -- Highest True Shoot Pct (.826) -- Highest 3 PT PCT with more than 20 3's (.647)#Stathead @bball_ref— Dick Lipe (@DickLipe) February 28, 2026

But how did they pull it off?

1. Cutting, cutting, and more cutting

Nikola Vucevic played great (we’ll get to that), and so did Jaylen Brown(we’ll get to that, too), but cutting was the centerpiece of Boston’s offensive masterpiece on Friday night.

The Nets like to play physical. Every time Boston has played them this year, they’ve sent extra pressure at Brown, Derrick White, and Payton Pritchard, trying to take the Celtics’ offense out of its rhythm.

On Friday, Boston got around that challenge with off-ball cuts, especially when Brooklyn double-teamed Vucevic in the post.

“He's obviously a great passer, so it's something that you want to take advantage of,” Joe Mazzullasaid post-game. “We just have to continue to get better at that.”

Sometimes, they were simple cuts. Vucevic gets the ball in the post, former Celtic Josh Minott goes over to help, and Hugo Gonzalezdashes toward the rim for an easy bucket.

Other times, it was a cut to make a pass. Here, Pritchard draws in two Nets defenders on his drive, and White sees an opportunity.

He drives behind Nicolas Claxton, who gets caught off-guard, Pritchard passes to him, and he kicks the ball out to a wide-open Vucevic in the corner.

There were even possessions with multiple cuts to really throw off Brooklyn’s defense.

Here, Gonzalez’s drive sucks in two Brooklyn defenders. Then, Pritchard cuts past Ziaire Williams, bringing the total up to three Nets defenders in the paint.

But when Gonzalez relocates to the corner, Danny Wolf has to shift over to cover that pass, so Vucevic gets an open lane to cut himself.

One drive, two cuts, one bucket.

With their constant off-ball movement, the Celtics were able to get around the Nets’ physical defense by constantly putting them in rotation.

“It put them in a lot of rotations,” said Vucevic. “It's very difficult to guard off-ball. If you're switching, it's something the offense can [do]. If you stay with your man, it's something. So, it's really hard to get that part right, especially when we're five-out, and we're able to cut like that, it opens up a lot for everybody. If they have to help on the cutter, he catches the ball, then he kicks it out, then it's full rotation for them. And with all the shooting we have, it's very difficult for them to get to everybody.”

“I thought we just did a good job reading the game,” Mazzulla said. “They're good defensively, [and] they have some different coverages. Whether they're switching, whether they're blitzing or whether they're. So I thought we just made the right reads throughout most of the entire game.”

2. Nikola Vucevic’s best game as a Celtic

Boston used Vucevic as an offensive hub on Friday night. They ran through him, and the Nets had no answer.

Once he got a matchup he liked, he went to work. Here, Vucevic ran a pick-and-roll to get Clowney switched onto him. He immediately ducked toward the rim, Baylor Scheiermanfound him, and he drew an and-one.

The Nets started sending two guys at Vucevic, but he played those situations beautifully. Here, the Nets send two, so Gonzalez cuts off the ball. Vucevic finds him, he kicks it to White, who swings it around to Pritchard for an open three.

A three that stemmed from Vucevic’s gravity in the post.

“I thought tonight, Vooch looked really comfortable in his offensive reads, and his offensive screening unlocked a lot of stuff for us,” Mazzulla said. “And so, we just gotta keep getting better at those. Just reading different matchups, making the right play.”

Whether it was post-ups…

…or pick-and-pop threes…

…Vucevic made the Nets pay.

As the weeks have gone on, he’s been getting more and more comfortable with his new teammates.

“It's been pretty good,” he said. “Still getting used to, obviously, the new offense, and all my teammates, and learning their tendencies and things like that. Finding my way. At times, I feel like I overthink a little bit, which then makes me kind of hesitant and takes away my aggressiveness. And I felt like tonight, I was just able to put a little more together. Just play off my teammates. When I was getting good looks, obviously, shots [were] falling, so that also helps. But just have to find the right balance of still playing my game, [being] aggressive, [and using] my instincts, but make it fit within what we want to run.

“So, I think just the more we play together, the more I learn my teammates' tendencies, the more they learn what I like, it'll help us. But I thought tonight came together pretty well. I think the offense was running pretty smoothly, and hopefully we'll continue to build on that.”

3. Aggressive Jaylen Brown

Friday didn’t start as a typical Brown night. He was cold to begin the game, even shooting 0-for-4 on his first four free-throw attempts of the night.

But two plays at the end of the second quarter changed everything.

The first was a drive through the thick of Brooklyn’s defense for a bucket.

The second, a step-back three to close the first half.

Brown took those two plays, that aggressiveness, with him into halftime. And when the third quarter opened up, there was nothing Brooklyn could do to slow him down.

He scored seven of the Celtics’ first 11 points of the second half, and he assisted on the other four (two Neemias Quetabuckets).

“To start the game, I felt like my shoulder was bothering me a little bit,” Brown said. “A little tight and stuff. So, after I warmed up a little bit, it got going, and I felt fine. But just a slow start. Nothing to worry about.”

‘Warned up’ is an understatement. Brown had 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting (2-of-2 from deep) in the third quarter, dishing out five assists along the way.

Brooklyn tried to double him to stop the bleeding, but pass after pass, he shredded their defensive game plan.

“Well, we've played Brooklyn a few times this season already, and they've pretty much doubled me every time I tried to drive, or anytime I touch the ball, they send two at me,” Brown said. “So, a couple times, I tried to bait the defense and get them, so we can get an easier one. But for the most part, it was just using my eyes, trying to find our guys in stride, and I feel like I did that tonight.”

4. Nikola Vucevic’s tap-out rebounds

It’s a small observation, but part of the reason Vucevic is such an effective defensive rebounder is his ability to box out and get the board at the same time.

As simple as it sounds, some centers struggle to do both simultaneously. But Vucevic gets around that with his tap-outs.

He holds off the opposing player with one arm, and with the other, he taps the rebound to one of his teammates.

And even when he’s not boxing out, Vucevic’s court awareness helps the Celtics start fastbreaks with his ability to tap rebounds over the heads of opponents and into the hands of his teammates.

5. Derrick White’s PnR

Over the last few games, whenever the Celtics’ offense gets in a rut, they’ve turned to one thing to collect themselves: White running the pick-and-roll.

He’s a master. And as his shots have begun to fall more consistently, it’s only made him more of a threat in the situation. Having a constant calming presence on the offensive end does a lot for the offense.

It’s simple. Almost never flashy. But when White is running the show in the pick-and-roll, the Celtics’ offense runs smoothly.

6. Baylor Scheierman knows Disney

Now, for the required entertainment break after a load of basketball film, here’s Baylor Scheierman absolutely crushing Disney movies and TV trivia on the TD Garden jubtotron.

(The fan he was going up against could only name six… not great.)

Baylor Scheierman cooking when asked to name Disney shows and movies pic.twitter.com/2Qqhtl7Shs— Jack Simone (@JackSimoneNBA) February 28, 2026